Ukraine's ethnic Russians and Tatars clash in Crimea

Long-dormant World War II hatreds came alive again on Wednesday, when
ethnic Russians clashed with ethnic Tatars outside of Crimea's
parliament building in Simferopol in southern Ukraine. Thousands of
Tatars demonstrated in front of the Crimean parliament on Wednesday to
block deputies from passing any legislation that would support the
separation of Crimea from Ukraine. According to one Tatar activist:

"We warned them not to arrange a [parliamentary]
session. Do not explode the situation in the Crimea. We know they
need that session to tear Crimea from Ukraine. We warned that the
Crimean Tatars will not allow this to happen."

As the Tatars chanted "Ukraine" and "Motherland! Crimea! People!",
pro-Russia demonstrators gathered, shouting "Crimea is Russia!"
According to one pro-Russia activist:

"We are here to defend ourselves from those western
Ukrainians, who think they can decide our future here in
Crimea. They never asked us what we wanted. We've spoken Russian
for 200 years here, and we're not going to start speaking that
Ukrainian. It's not even a real language, it's a
dialect."

Russia's dictator Josef Stalin, who had already engineered the massive
famine in Ukraine in the 1930s, in 1944 deported 200,000 Tatars from
Crimea, where they had lived for centuries, to central Asia, accusing
them of collaborating with the Nazis. It was only in the 1980s and
1990s that the Tatars returned in large numbers to Crimea,
particularly after the collapse of the Soviet Union and Ukraine's
independence. However, the bitter feelings between the Russians and
the Tatars still remains, and could spiral into a bloody
confrontation. Ria Novosti and CS Monitor

Russia masses 150,000 troops on border with Ukraine

Russia's president Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordered war games
involving 150,000 troops along the border with Ukraine. This followed
several days of activities, as trucks full of armed Russian troops
arrived at the Black Sea port of Yalta, and armored personnel carriers
arrived at Sevastopol. Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said
Moscow was "carefully watching what is happening in Crimea." He
claimed that no invasion of Ukraine was planned, but also said:

"The commander-in-chief [Vladimir Putin] has set the
task of checking the capability of the armed forces to deal with
crisis situations posing a threat to the military security of the
country,"

Hezbollah vows retaliation for Israel's air strike in Lebanon

Lebanon's Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah vowed to "choose the
appropriate time, place and method of response" to retaliate against
Israel for an air strike on Monday. The target of the air strike is
unknown, though Hezbollah claimed that "no one was martyred or
wounded," and there was only "material damage." However, some
security sources say that the strike hit two trucks transporting
missiles and a missile launcher into Lebanon, and that four Hezbollah
members were killed. Israeli defense officials are expecting
Hezbollah to target senior Israeli figures in the future, in
retaliation for Monday’s air strike. Daily Star (Beirut)

Nigeria asks France for help in dealing with Boko Haram terrorists

France, which already has thousands of peacekeeping troops in former
colonies Mali and Central African Republic, is now being asked to help
a former British colony, Nigeria, to deal with the growing threat by the
jihadist terror group Boko Haram ("Western education is forbidden").
The request was triggered by a horrific terror attack on a school in
northeastern Nigeria on Tuesday where 29 boys were killed, and the
girls were told to go home, get married, and abandon Western
education. There had been soldiers guarding a checkpoint near the
government school, but they were mysteriously withdrawn hours before
the attack, leaving the terrorists to continue their massacre for five
hours, with no troops or security agents intervening. Nigeria's
government also asked for help from neighboring Cameroon, saying that
the terrorists hide out in Cameroon. (Paragraph corrected. 27-Feb)Nigeria Bulletin and Oman Observer